Tea towel turned tote bag with attached pouch

Like I said, I was in a Creating mode. So I'm updating the blog with another tutorial. This one is real quick and easy. You should be able to finish this in 1 hour or so if you have all the material with you. It's a tea towel turned tote bag with attached pouch. Yes. It's another tea towel refashioned project aside from my apron tutorial.

I saw these cut tea towel from Spotlight and the material was quite thick so I immediately thought that they would really look good as tote bag. I thought my mum would really love this when she goes to the market or library. The little pouch attached can hold her keys or library card.

Here's the simple instruction.

Material
Tea towel (17" X 27.5") preferably thicker material
Cotton heading tape - 2m
velcro tape

Instruction
Fold the towel into half - 17" X 13.75" and cut away 5.5" from the 17". This portion will be used later for the front pocket and pouch.

From the cut off portion, open up the full length. Cut 14.5" from 27.5" to form the front pocket.

Serge the raw edges.  For the top of the pocket, fold in 0.25" and sew the seam in. Attach this piece to the front of the bag (right side facing up) and sew 2 side seams to form the pocket. I've also sew a line in the middle so that I've 2 pockets.

If you have a serger, serge around the raw edge at the bottom.

Turn it so that right side facing each other and sew the side seam together. You can use the existing towel hem as a guide. Later, you will need to cut this edge off and serge the raw edge else it will be very bulky at the side seam. Keep this cut-off as you will later use them as a fabric tie for the pouch to the main bag.

Sew the bottom of the bag. Flip over to the right side and you have your bag. Next, we will do the strap. Easy right?

For the strap, I've used the white cotton heading tape which is quite soft. So I've use 42" long and fold them and sew the long edge together using a straight stitch. The strap is now 21". You can adjust the length accordingly. My mum is not too tall so I don't want her to drag her bag. Pin the strap, roughly about 3 1/4" from the side.

Make sure that you get the both straps at the same location else it will be messing to pick the threads. Sew them securelly.

Next, the pouch. Take the remaining tea towel piece and serge the raw edges. Fold and sew 0.25" of the serged side seam allowance.

Fold 4" with wrong side facing each other, to form the bottom of the pouch.  Fold the top 0.5" seam allowance inwards and sew in place.

As I intend that the pouch be small, around 4" tall, I cut off the excess 2.5". Serge the raw edge and sew 0.25" seam.

Next, sew the seam seams with 0.25" to form the pouch.

Add the velcro patch to the middle of the flap, about 2" or so.

Lastly, attach the pouch to the tote bag. I want the pouch to be permanently attached to the handle so I use the excess fabric left over and sew them to the inside of the pouch flap. If you want to remove this, you can either add a button or removeable clip.

There you go! A nice and customed made tote bag with a handy pouch to bring to the library or marketing!

Booster Seat Cover

Ever since I bought my serger, I can't resist to use it for all my project : ). Don't know why it's seems to threaputic to see the threads goes into making those wonderful hem...

Over the weekends, I did 2 more project. Will share the 2nd project on my next post. I'm in a Creating mode now. Thank God both my sewing machine and serger are working fine, else I'll be pulling my hair out.

My big girl's booster seat was getting very old and dirty. She has been eating, drinking in the car and in the process, the inevitable happened - spilled drinks and food crumbs can be found on that seat!I had always had in mind to sew her a new cover but lack the motivation. Saw Sachiko did a beautiful booster seat cover for her son, I was quite keen to try one myself. Mine was a bit different in that the whole seat was covered with fabric, not only the centre piece. Anyway, I thought I could use some of the beautiful fabric I bought recently to try.

Materials
Cotton fabric - about 3/4 yard (I've used Nicey Jane Picnic bouquet Tangerine for this project. I think I use less than 1 yard.
Cotton batting 16" X 10"
Ikea seat cover (not sure of the material but it provides additional cushion for the middle seat)
Black polyster belt (those that use as bag handle or similar)
Elastic band for holding seat cover to seat
white thread

Instruction
Took apart the old seat cover to get measurement. Gasp! The foam that was inbetween the fabric has disintegrated and it was quite messy with those loose powery foam floating around my dinning table : (. As the fabric is quite old and crummy, I had to make do with rough estimation and guessimation, if there's such word. It's quite ok but there's some adjustment as the original fabric was a stretch knit and I'm using cotton.

Anyway, I draw out the pieces onto a tracing paper and transfer to my fabric. 4 sets of pieces for the centre, outer and inner fabric for the 2 arm rest and the arm rest itself. I've tried to include a 0.5" seam allowance so that I've a bigger margin for error since I can't find the exact measurement.

First I sew the centre piece. I've used the Nicey Jane as top fabric and a regular green cotton from my stash for the bottom which is not visable anyway. In between, I put a nice cotton batting for more cushion. Sandwich them in order of Top fabric (wrong side face up), bottom fabric (right side face up) and batting.  Sew around the edge and leave a 4" gap on top for turning. Sew around the 4 edges after turning the right side up.

Next, I sew the arm rest. Take the 2 outer pieces and sew the short edge together on the wrong side so that it for a continuous loop from side to back to side. Serge the raw edges.

I've used my serger to serge the seam : )

Now, the tricky part. Attach the inner arm rest pieces to the outer piece with right sides facing each other.  Using pins, carefully align the 2 bigger loops together and pin in place. Sew around the loop and turn out to right side facing. You can try this around the booster seat arm rest to check if your measurement is correct.

Turn it to right side facing again and continue below. Take the long stripes which is the arm rest piece, and carefully pin it along the concave part of the curve and all along the curve to the small loop. See below for better illustration. Do this with wrong side face up. This step is very important as it determine how fitted your fabric will be on the arm rest. I did it a few times just to get the shape right. It was painful to pick the seams so try to loop on to the booster seat to check the fit before you sew.

a closer look at the arm rest

If you get this correct, the whole stripe should fit nicely between the outer and inner arm rest. Sew around the edge and turn it right side up and try them on the booster seat again. You should have this.

After you are satisfied with the fit, sew the centre piece to the 2 arm rests. You should also place your centre piece on the booster seat together so you can adjust the seam allowance to sew. Pin and sew on the wrong side.

Sew around the top and side seams to join the centre piece to the arm rest piece. I've also add a edge finish to my booster seat using the black polyster belt for decorative purpose.  To fit the seat cover, sew 2 elastic band under the seat cover to hold them to the seat. I've also inserted the Ikea seat cover underneath to give more cushion. It's removeable so i don't have to worry about spoiling them in the washing machine.

side view

back view

That's it! Hope you can follow the tutorial. How long did I spent on this project? Hmm, 4 hours, including cutting. The sewing was simple but the fitting of the arm rest was arrr....Next time, if I had to do this again, I'll most probably use knit as it is more stretchable and the error for margin is higher compared to using cotton fabric. But the fabric is so nice don't you think?

Tinker romper

There! I've finally finished the tinker romper for my baby girl. I've mentioned in my earlier post that I've followed the instruction from Samstermommy.  Her instruction is very clear and picture does help. But I've adjusted alittle as it's for my 10month old girl and the bossini XL T that I bought was just the right width for the romper at 34". So for those of you who are reading this in Singapore or Malaysia, you can buy a bossini XL T-shirt and make this easily. Or you can also use a regular knit fabric for this but I feel that since the edges are already sewn, this will be a much easier project using a T-shirt.

Anyway, just follow her instruction. The bossini T measure just the right size for her so I just need to cut the length correctly at 17" from bottom up. Use the elastic thread to sew the smocked area on top. You can use 12 rows of stitches or more, depending on your preference. But be careful when you sew the smocked as the 2nd line onwards are very tricky after the 1st one was sewn. Have to really hold on to the fabric as the line may go off and the final result is less than perfect. For me, since this is a first attempt on using the elastic thread, I'm quite happy that I don't have loose unwind elastic thread. Maybe the next time, I can do better. (already dreaming of any fairy outfit...).

I've used my newly bought serger : ) ; ) to serge the top part of the smocked area as well as the top part of the tinker skirt. As I follow the instruction, realised that I've to alternate between the elastic thread bobbin and the regular thread. So, to minimise the switch, here's the steps you may like to take when you sew this.

Cutting
1) cut the bottom part of a T-shirt for the main romper (I used the entire width of T-shirt and cut just at armpit area = 17" long)

2) cut the small arc at bottom of the fabric joint (2" arc) around the side of the T-shirt (seam area)

fold the t-shirt into 1/2 and cut the arc at bottom along side seam

3) cut the skirt from bottom part of another T-shirt (I used the entire width of the T-shirt, and about 11" in length. You can adjust the length of the skirt according to your preference) Fold the T-shirt lengthwise and draw out the shape. The middle petal shape should be the centre.




Folded side will be the centre of the skirt



open out the skirt. nice and curve petal shape in the middle

4) cut 6 stripes of t-shirt fabric and braid them together to form 2 straps. Later you will need to cut them into 4 straps.

I just use clothe peg to keep them in place till I sew them together

Sewing
1) First serge the top part of the smocked area. You can also use zig zag stitch so that it looks complete. As my bottom of the romper is using the existing T-shirt bottom, the edge already nicely hem.

2) Serge the top part of the skirt. I've used baby lock. I've left the bottom edge free so it looks more fairly-like.

3)  Flip the romper inside out and sew around the arc so that now it looks like a cut trouser. Turn it out and again so that the right side face out.

4) Now for the smocked part of the romper. Sew using the elastic thread in the bobbin and normal thread on top. You can follow her instruction.  As mine is a continuous loop (it's the whole piece of the T-shirt), I did it alittle bit different. I start at the side of the T-shirt (the part with the joint line) and start sewing 1/2" from the top. Go one round and when I reach the end of the 1st line, I sew a few stitches down and start the 2nd line following closely to the 1st line. This is the tricky part. Since the first is already sewn, it curled abit, so you got to hold on the fabric and sew a straight line. Follow through for the next 12 or so lines. Remember to secure the thread in the beginning and end. Throughout the sewing, I've changed the bobbin 3 times. So, need to do this step 4 times.

5) Using the elastic thread again, sew the bottom of both the romper leg areas. Sew twice around using the existing hem as a guide.

6) Take the skirt portion, and sew using the elastic thread, 1/2" below the serged top of the skirt.

7) Now the assemble part. Attach the skirt to top of the romper by sewing (normal thread) along the last line of the smocked line. You must first determine the front of the romper so that the curve part of the skirt is exactly at the centre of the romper. Since you have sewn the leg part, the option is only the front and back : P

8) Attach the straps to the top of the romper by sewing to the first line of the smocked line.

There you go! Can't wait for my girl to wear them. Will update the photo of her wearing it later.
Here's my little girl in her tinker romper. She can't stand yet so photo are not so clear.

finally got her to stand straight!

back view

how do I look?

crawling tinker